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Oxford University has followed in the footsteps of its Cambridge counterpart by appointing a chief investment officer for a Â£900m (â¬1.3bn) endowment fund.

The position has been filled by Sandra Robertson, previously co-head of portfolio management at the Wellcome Trust, a bio-medical research charity. Robertson starts in September.

Cambridge last year became the first UK university endowment to appoint a chief investment officer. Nick Cavalla, previously chief investment officer of Man Global Strategies, joined in April. He will appoint a team of six. Robertson is expected to appoint a team of five.

With these changes, Oxford and Cambridge are moving toward the US university endowment model. Counterparts, such as Yale and Harvard, manage some of the most successful funds in the world. In-house teams are presided over by a chief investment officer, and the endowments have a reputation for implementing innovative investment strategies.

Oxford’s selection process was initiated by its new investment committee, which is chaired by Richard Oldfield, founder and chief executive of UK asset manager Oldfield Partners. The committee was formed in February, part of a financial modernisation review.

Before the review, the investment committee was chaired by Alan Budd, an economist and provost of Queen’s College, but it was not staffed by investment industry professionals. This was amended in February, when Oldfield joined along with four others.

Oxford’s colleges manage their endowment funds independently. The combined value of the funds is around £2.7bn. A structure is expected to be put in place which will allow the colleges to invest in the University’s central endowment, to which Robertson has been appointed.